Tony Yew and Chan Lilian duke it out

Chan Lilian, a Penang chief minister media department staff, wrote in her Twitter account on June 29: “i think all Christians shud march for all the persecution they had done to us and our Lord”.

Blog House Malaysia secretary Tony Yew made a police report so that the authorities could “charge [Lilian] for seditious statements, and use her as an example to others that we cannot take National Unity for granted”.

Tony posted in his blog on July 1: “As long as there are those out there who think they can get away with this, then we must all be vigilant in safeguarding this nation we all love. To incite and divide is hardly an act of allegiance to Malaysia!”

He told reporters that Lilian’s tweet was intentionally seditious and “dangerous considering the recent development related to this coming 9 July”.

Lilian – the “official video-journalist of Lim Guan Eng” – subsequently clarified in her blog that when referring to those responsible for persecuting Christians and Jesus, she “did not mean the government”.

In her July 3 posting, Lilian denied she had ever implied that all Christians should march with Bersih. Instead, she said her tweet was merely a “lamentation” or wailing which should be understood in a biblical sense. The word ‘march’, insisted Lilian, is not to be understood either in its most obvious definition but “in a Christian way means to be brave and not cower, to stand for justice and rights …”.

Lilian denied also that she was “a Bersih advocator”. She explained that since she did not pin a yellow badge on her avatar or “repeatedly asked everyone to join” the gathering, she is innocent of Tony’s charge. In fact, she termed him a “screwed up guy” and his allegation that she had mixed religion with politics to be a “screwed idea”.

Although I don’t buy Lilian’s flat out denials and disagree with her language used on Tony, but nonetheless you’d still have thought that her tweet should be rightly dismissed as a tempest in a teacup. But no. It seems that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, after reading in the papers (or perhaps in the Umno blogs that had gone to town with the story) about Tony’s police report, decided on its own initiative to further pursue the matter.

The government apparently takes a most serious view when it is someone from the opposition camp that’s said to be “dangerous”, “inciting” and threatening “national unity”. But how about when it concerns someone on the pro-establishment side of the fence?

The rest of the articletouches on Ridhuan Tee’s instigation against Bersih and saying the movement is led by an “ultra kiasu”; Ibrahim Ali’s veiled threats of May 13 as well as how PSM is committed to enfranchising the poor and marginalised, and Saras (one of the EO6) a courageous woman.

The fence seems to have a backdoor for bloggers like Tony Yew who’re pro-UMNGOK to slip in and out as he pleased. We just have to make sure there’s a Bear-Trap on this secret door the next time he sneaks in…

I agree with Bersih’s assessment of the unfairness and un-‘free’-ness (fetters) of the electoral system that we have, which has advantaged BN disproportionately. I believe that our past election results do not accurately or adequately reflect the genuine will of the people.

However while I do believe that Bersih should be supported, the opposition has to some extent hijacked the movement’s platform (to what extent is a complex scale and needs more looking into, which in time we will come to know better).

The government’s response is deplorable, and I had already written that two days prior to the rally if you’ll read my CPI article.

As to Lilian’s ‘backpedalling’ as Crankshaft put it — see reader comment in ‘Chan Lilian’s series of denials’ — let me ask you this (if you happen to be a DAP follower): How much trust can you put in a party whose frontliners do not have the guts to stick to what they say, and begin twisting and turning at the slightest hint of pressure?